New Telegraph

Constitution Amendment: Speakers insist on restructuring, community police

The Conference of Speakers of State Legislatures in Nigeria, yesterday stressed the need to restructure Nigeria and create community police in the ongoing amendment to the 1999 Constitution. This was as the National Assembly insisted on the elimination of State/ Joint Account and Local Government Autonomy in order to address all encumbrances to the development of local government areas in the country.

The Chairman of the Conference of Speakers, Abubakar Suleiman, who is also the Speaker of Bauchi State House of Assembly, while speaking at the meeting of the Conference with the National Assembly joint Committee on Constitution review in Abuja, urged the apex assembly to carry the Presidency and governors along for the proposals to scale through.

Suleiman said that with the challenges of insecurity in the country, it had become imperative for the legislature to address all the issues causing agitation such as restructuring, devolution of powers, community and state police. “We are being confronted with certain challenges in the country that border on insecurity, economy, devolution of powers and week institutions.

“The Conference of Speakers subscribes to the call that the review of the Constitution is one of the legislative actions at our disposal that could be explored to address these challenges. “We therefore, call on the members of the National Assembly and the State Houses of Assembly to take this opportunity of yet another alteration exercise to address many agitated issues such as restructuring, devolution of powers, community and state police.” While appreciating the inclusiveness in the exercise, the Chairman called on the National Assembly to endeavour to carry along other major stakeholders like the Presidency and governors in the ongoing exercise.

“We are particular about the Executive arms at both tiers of government due to the previous experience and reluctance or selective considerations for presidential assent by the Presidency and challenges of implementation at the state level.”

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